Fifty facts reminding us New Year’s Eve isn't all it's cracked up to be

Try lowering your expectations and things could go really well

Published December 31, 2017 5:58AM (EST)

The Waterford crystal ball is lit during a test for the New Year's Eve celebration atop One Times Square in New York, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014. The ball, which is 12 feet in diameter and weighs 11,875 pounds, is decorated with 2,688 Waterford crystals and illuminated by 32,256 LED lights. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) (AP)
The Waterford crystal ball is lit during a test for the New Year's Eve celebration atop One Times Square in New York, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014. The ball, which is 12 feet in diameter and weighs 11,875 pounds, is decorated with 2,688 Waterford crystals and illuminated by 32,256 LED lights. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) (AP)

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

AlterNet

New Year’s Eve: the night of unrealistic expectations and guaranteed disappointments. The parties are rarely as good as you envision, the surge pricing is out of control and every space humans can occupy is absolutely lousy with drunks. One study found that a whopping 83 percent of people are let down by their New Year’s Eve celebration, mostly because of the vast incongruities between the myth of the night versus the reality. It’s not impossible that this year, people will have the New Year's Eve experience they’ve always dreamed of. It’s just that you won’t be one of those people. (Sorry.)

But enough with the stuff you already know about New Year's Eve; how about a few things you might not know? WalletHub has rounded up a bunch of facts, some of which surprise, while others not so much. For example, did you know that both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are among the top five days for car theft? Or that New Year’s Eve is the night with the most illegal “celebratory” firings of guns? Or that while 67 percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, just over 9 percent actually achieve their goals? And on September 30 — exactly nine months after New Year's Eve — 11,974 babies are born.

Check out the infographic below for more.

 

Alternet_NewYearsEve


By Kali Holloway

Kali Holloway is the senior director of Make It Right, a project of the Independent Media Institute. She co-curated the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s MetLiveArts 2017 summer performance and film series, “Theater of the Resist.” She previously worked on the HBO documentary Southern Rites, PBS documentary The New Public and Emmy-nominated film Brooklyn Castle, and Outreach Consultant on the award-winning documentary The New Black. Her writing has appeared in AlterNet, Salon, the Guardian, TIME, the Huffington Post, the National Memo, and numerous other outlets.

MORE FROM Kali Holloway


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Alternet Car Theft Celebrations Guns Holidays New Year's Day New Year's Eve New Year's Resolution Wallethub